Ronald Koeman, all that never was.

Earlier on this afternoon Ronald Koeman was informed by the Everton board that his tenure as Manager had come to an end. Ronald replaced Roberto Martinez in June 2016 with many believing he was the man to finally take us back up to consistent European Finishes with the hope of eventually achieving a Champions League Finish. Very few Evertonians would have predicted that 16 months down the line that Ronald Koeman would no longer be in charge of the Blues.

Koeman had initially rejected Everton in favour of another season on the South coast, but Everton were persistent in their efforts to see Koeman take the helm and after intense negotiations Koeman eventually agreed to become Everton manager, which saw him make it into the top 10 highest paid Football managers in the world.

Everton fans will rightly feel let down by Koeman and the teams efforts this year as we sit 18th in the league table, bottom of our Europa League group, and with a very tricky test away at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Fans have been calling for Koeman’s head for over a month now, and as the news broke earlier this afternoon it was clear that the decision was supported by the majority of Evertonians on twitter, but there wasn’t much talk on the disappointment of Koeman’s tenure as Everton Manager.

2016/17 was a decent season for Everton, with many believing that the season would be deemed a transition season for Koeman to bring in the players he wanted, change the style of play to suit his management style and to get the foundations in place for a very strong 17/18 season. A 7th place finish saw Everton return to European club competition for the first time in three years, which is something that myself and the majority of Evertonians believe is the very least that we should be achieving.

Romelu Lukaku’s departure from Goodison Park came as no surprise to the Everton board and Koeman, who still had 7 weeks to find a replacement for Lukaku before the deadline of the end of August. We failed to recruit a Striker of a similar level who could challenge for the amount of goals that Romelu scored for us last season.

Ultimatley the clubs failure to secure a Striker who can consistently put the ball in the back of the net has cost Koeman his job at Everton, He invested heavily in the squad and really didnt manage to capture the type of player that we required.

It is all well and good bringing in the likes of Gylfi, Rooney and Klassen, but ultimately these creative players are not going to be able to show off their creative flair if their isn’t someone infant of them to stick it in the back of the net. Koeman also didnt seem to know his strongest lineup this season, with the side constantly being changed, with players playing well out of position.

The Optimism was there from Evertonians at the start of the season, and to be where we are in the competitions that we are competing in is unacceptable and Koeman had to go. As the results got worse, it seemed asif he was completely oblivious to the awful performances that his side were giving out. Goodison went from one of the hardest places in the league to visit, to one of the easiest. The demolitions by Spurs, Burnley and Arsenal, coupled with two below par performances at home in the Europa League that saw us pick up one point has to be one of the main reasons Koeman departed Finch Farm today.

Nevertheless I wish Ronald well but would like to reiterate that this club needs a manager who loves and breathes the club, Koeman may have been a good manager for a year, but at times it was tricky to understand some of the decisions that he was making. I hope David Unsworth can get the squad ready for Chelsea on Wednesday and hopefully we will finally have something to cheer.

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